Update, June 16: The Irish Times reports that the U.K. will “push hard” for return of its share of stolen education aid funds.
The country’s finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta said the names of officials investigated had been given to the police, but analysts said the chances of prosecutions were low.
“Handing over reports to the criminal investigations department of the Kenyan police force is a good way of shelving investigations,” said Mwalimu Mati, chief executive officer at the corruption watchdog Mars Group Kenya. “It is hard to see how such a discredited police force can bring about justice when they are still investing in Anglo Leasing and Goldenberg.”
The Goldenberg scandal, which cost the country over 10 per cent of GDP, dates back to the early 1990s. It saw the government of Kenya pay out hundreds of millions of dollars of public money in a bogus gold export scheme. No government officials have been prosecuted for their part in it.
Despite coming to power in December 2002 on a strong anti-graft platform, President Mwai Kibaki has failed to stamp out corruption in east Africa’s largest economy. Kenya has slipped down the rankings of Transparency International’s 2010 corruption perceptions index, falling to 154 out of 178 countries.
Last year the government said it could be losing $4 billion, nearly one-third of the national budget, to kickbacks and other forms of corruption.
“Kenya is good at talking about corruption cases,” Teresa Omondi, the deputy executive director of Transparency International – Kenya, said, “but not at prosecuting anyone in them. The fact that no stringent action is ever taken means there is a risk of us hearing about all this again next year.”
“UK cuts education aid by Sh300m”, Daily Nation:
The government was on Tuesday put under pressure to rein in corruption within its ranks, with the United Kingdom announcing a Sh300 million education budget cut.
British High Commissioner Rob Macaire said that they will continue funding education, but only through non-governmental channels until the Ministry of Education adopted prudent financial management systems.
This year, the British Government has allocated Sh1.3 billion to fund various educational programmes through these channels.
“It is shocking that civil servants in trusted positions in the government would steal such an amount of money.
“We share in the outrage of Kenyans about this, because there is UK taxpayers money involved too,” Mr Macaire said.
He was responding to fresh investigations by Treasury over a Sh4.2 billion fraud in the Education ministry.
“This should not be allowed, neither tolerated,” he said, adding that the culprits should be prosecuted.
So far, the Department for International Development (DfID) has supplied 320,000 children in slums with textbooks in 1,100 selected schools.
Mr Mike Harrison, deputy director at DfID, said unless financial transactions are electronic, they would not fund the ministry.
“We need some concrete proof that the financial management in the ministry are turned around.
“Electronic money transfer will have to be at the heart of the system unlike today where paper transfer is easily doctored.”
. . . .
See, “Treasury audit reveals Sh5.8bn fraud”, Daily Nation. “Education and Medical Services staff probed over Sh 6.2bn loss“, The Star.